1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a key unit of a dealing board provided with various telephoning functions and adapted to be used as a terminal of a financial institution, such as banks and securities corporations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally speaking, the dealing board used as a financial terminal has a telephone function. Recently, a wide variety of functions has become available, with several functions of the terminal grouped and panelled in units. Customers can select their necessary units other than basic units and combine these selected units in order to construct the particular and custom-built dealing board.
Because the dealing board has telephone functions, it is constructed with a hand-set, a set of dialing buttons, function buttons, a display, a microphone, a speaker, and a set of switches for operating and controlling these instruments.
FIGS. 29 and 30, respectively show perspective and sectional views of the conventional dealing board of the kind described above.
As shown, a main body 131 of the dealing board is installed on a desk 132. A display system 133 displaying information, such as economic information, is installed on the front portion of the desk 132, and a control box 134 is placed under the desk.
Ordinarily, a control panel 139a of the main body 131 of the dealing board is apt to be slanted by an angle of the range of 10.degree.-30.degree. in order to make the operability of the dealing board good.
As shown in FIGS. 31 and 32, the main body 131 of the dealing board consists of the control panel 139a, the function buttons 135, a pair of print substrates 137 and 138 on which function circuits are mounted, and a case 139 containing these parts described above. These print substrates 137 and 138 are assembled in parallel with each other through a pair of bushings 140 and the assembly is installed on the inner face of the front-slanted control panel 139a by screws 141.
A plurality of steps or floors of junction print substrate 142 join the dealing board main body 131 to the control box 134, and the set of print substrates 143 and 144 is contained and installed on the bottom portion of the case 139.
According to the conventional dealing board shown, the control panel 139a is installed on the upper face of the boxlike case 139 so as to be inclined down toward the front, the bottom face 139d of the case 139 is placed horizontally, and the front and the rear faces 139b and 139c of the case 139 are situated at a right angle relative to the bottom face 139d.
In order to assemble the conventional dealing board, the case 139 of the dealing board main body 131 is inserted downward through an opening portion 132a of the desk 132, and the case 139 is fixed in place by a set of fixtures 145. In such a situation, a pair of vertical walls of the case 139 are placed at a right angle to the top plate of the desk 132, so when a user A sits on a chair in back of the dealing board, his knee B touches the front face 139b or a corner of the case as shown in FIG. 33, thereby blocking up free movement of the knee B of the user. Also, the person cannot sit on the chair comfortably, thereby creating early fatigue of the user disadvantageously.
It is possible, as apparent from FIGS. 30 and 33, to lengthen the length L of the top plate of the desk 132. However, a lengthening of the top plate generates inconveniently a large desk 132 occupying disadvantageously a large space of the office room when the dealing board with the large-size desk is installed therein.
Also, the main body 131 of the conventional dealing board has slanted print substrates 137 and 138 on which function buttons 135 are mounted and other print substrates 142, 143, and 144 fixed to the bottom of the case 139 are placed in a horizontal posture, whereby useless space H is created between the set of print substrates 137 and 138 and the set of print substrates 142, 143, and 144. As a result, the whole size of the case 139 becomes large, and heat generated from electronic parts mounted on the horizontal print substrates 143 and 142 is apt to be blocked by the top and the lower print substrates 143 and 144 and escapes through thermal stream 146, resulting in a bad heat radiation of the main body 131 of the dealing board.
In addition, the appropriate slanting angle .theta. of the dealing board varies according to the particular customer of the board, so that it has been necessary to manufacture the main body 131 of the dealing board having various slanting angles .theta. according to the particular desire of the user. That is, it is difficult to standardize the angle and a number of kinds of the main body of the dealing board must be produced, resulting in a difficulty of management for the production of the board.
The conventional dealing board has, as shown in FIGS. 34-37, a panel unit 154 adapted to be used by the user as a communication means, which unit includes a dial operation part 155, a display portion 157 such as liquid crystal, a number of key units 156 having automatic dialing functions, a volume control 158 for controlling the volume or darkness or brightness of the microphone and other key units and the display 157, and other control panels for various switches. These various parts contained in the panel unit 154 are arranged on a panel 159 and connected and secured to print substrates 160-1 and 160-2. The control panel of the dealing board is constructed by the parts of the panel unit 154 including a hand-set. Further, the dealing board deals with in function a number of clients or business connections, and the particular client can be called out with a single touch operation of buttons through the automatic dialing function. The automatic dialing function includes a display function depicting the name or symbol of the customer through a set of light emitting diodes in order to indicate the customer called out, which display function is placed near the key unit 156 of the automatic dial, and other functions indicating an arrival of a telephone call or the existence of a caller.
The names of customers can be memorized in the dealing board by the dialing function, but it is necessary to install on the board the panel unit 154 consisting of a number of key switches. It is preferable to construct the control panel of the dealing board by the panel unit 154 which unitizes or groups various functions in their kinds, because the dealing board has a number of functions. Consequently, the dealing board is constructed by selecting and combining function units, such as a display 133 and the like shown in FIG. 29, which are necessary to the customer, except the basic function unit.
In general, the conventional dealing board is mounted on the desk and a number of desks having the dealing boards mounted thereon are placed in an office room.
The desk with the dealing board has a display apparatus for selecting and displaying various economic information, book shelves and drawers. It is apparent that consequently a predetermined space of the desk top board is necessary to make operation of the dealing board easy and convenient. However, it is desirable to restrict the size of the desk in order to accommodate many desks in the dealing room. When the size of the desk is limited, it is necessary to shorten the depth of the desk, thereby obtaining small desks.
The conventional dealing board is constructed by a panel unit 154 as described above having multi-functions. Concerning the panel unit 154, the key switch 165 shown in FIG. 38 of the key unit 156 with automatic dialing function has an electric conductive contact rubber 165-2 used as a movable contact and a stable contact 165-3, which contact rubber is covered by a case 165-1 and the stable contact is fixed on the top face of the case 165-1. In addition, a terminal 165-4 connected to the stable contact 165-3 is soldered to be fixed to the print substrate 160-1. As a consequence, due to the existence of the terminal 165-4 protruding from the rear face of the print substrate 160-1, it is difficult to mount other elements or parts on the rear face of the print substrate 160-1, resulting in an impossibility of high density or compact mounting of elements on the print substrate 160-1. Similarly, the print substrate 160-1 is provided with light emitting diode (LED) 166 corresponding to respective key switches 165 of the key unit 156. A terminal 166-1 of the LED 166 is soldered to be fixed to the print substrate 160-1. As a consequence, due to the existence of the terminal 166-1 protruding from the rear face of the print substrate 160-1, it is difficult to mount other elements or parts on the rear face of the print substrate 160-1, resulting in an impossibility of high density or compact mounting of elements on the print substrate 160-1. Additionally, because the conductive contact rubber 165-2 is covered by the case 165-1 and contacts the key switch 165, an area occupied by the key switch 165 becomes large, making a miniaturizing of the panel unit 154 difficult.
A protective resistor 162-1 must be arranged on the outside of the key switch 165, causing a hindrance to a miniaturization of the panel unit 154.
According to the prior art, the panel unit 154 has been fixed to an opening portion of the main body of the dealing board by the method shown in FIG. 39.
That is, a fixing piece 171 and a fixture 172 are applied to the opening portion of the case 170, and another fixing piece 175 engaging with the fixing piece 171 and another fixture 177 contacting with the fixture 172 and covering the fixture 172 are installed at the side of the panel 173 so as to engage the fixing piece 175 at the side of the panel 173 with the fixing piece 171 at the side of the case 170. Screws 179 placed in the fixtures 172 and 177 are fastened by using a tool 178, such as a screwdriver, inserted through the bottom portion of the case 170 after the fixture 177 at the side of the panel 173 is mounted on the fixture 172 at the side of the case 170. Thus, the panel 173 is secured to the case 170.
According to the fixing mechanism of the prior art as shown in FIG. 40, the panel 173 is fixed to the opening portion of the case 170 by securing the fixing piece 171 to the opening portion and driving the screw 179 to fasten the panel 173 fitted in the opening portion from the top to the fixing piece 171.
The reference numeral 173a indicates function buttons placed in the panel 173.
It is necessary to turn over the case 170 when the tool 178 is inserted from the bottom of the case 170 of the fixing arrangement shown in FIG. 39 and used to fasten the screw 179.
However, the case 170 has a plurality of panels 173 neatly arranged and secured thereto and the gap between panels 173 is adjusted neatly to the fixed distance obtaining a good appearance. Consequently, when the case 170 must be turned over as mentioned above and the panels 173 are secured thereto, it is necessary to turn over the case 170 and exchange several panels 173 every time it is intended to change the combination of the panels 173. When it is found that the gaps between the panels are not equal after the exchange, the case 170 must be again turned over and the same work repeated. It is explicitly troublesome and time-consuming.
When another fixing construction as shown in FIG. 40 is employed, in which the panel 173 is secured to the case 170 by means of the screw 179 inserted from above the panel 173, a head of the screw 179 is exposed, thereby deteriorating an appearance of the case 170.
In general, the control panel of the dealing board main board is slanted downwardly in order to develop an operability of the control panel and there is no space for pencils or other writing instruments and the like to be held thereon, on the panel 173, so that when a pencil or writing instrument is carelessly put on the slanted panel 173 the instrument will roll down from the panel and become lost thereby hindering a smooth working of a user of the control panel.
The conventional dealing board generally used as a financial terminal deals with transactions of bonds, foreign exchanges, and stocks through telephone lines, so some telephoning functions are installed on the board.
The telephoning function has a one-touch or one-switching function for calling a customer instantly or by one-pushing. However, because recently a number of the customers has increased due to a variability of the business, it has been difficult to adapt the one-switching operation system to all customers.
Consequently, according to the recent trend, a plasma display is mounted on the dealing board, which displays the names of customers and telephone numbers. Merely touching the particular name by a finger can call out the customer.
There are other kinds of dealing boards having expanded functions. According to one development, names and telephone numbers of the customers are previously memorized in a memory card and the memory card is inserted in an insertion slot of the dealing board, so that the content of the card is displayed on the plasma display. Using the dealing board of the kind above, the user always holds his or her own memory card and the user can call out the user's customers through the dealing boards other than his or her own dealing board and carry out transactions.
The dealing board to which memory cards are used has a reader-writer installed in the board so as to read and write information in the memory card, and the memory card is inserted into the card insert slot of the reader-writer.
A card take-out button for taking out the memory card inserted is protrudingly formed near the reader-writer. A cover 181 is fixed to the card insertion slot as shown in FIG. 41 through a set of screws 180 in order to prevent the card take-out button from being accidently touched during a use of the dealing board, and foreign matter such as dust and trash from entering or invading into the card insertion slot, thereby damaging the reader-writer during a non-use of the dealing board.
However, according to the prior art, the conventional cover 181 is fixed to cover the card insertion slot by means of screws 180, so that it is necessary to remove the screws 180 and the cover 181 every time the dealing board is used. It is troublesome to remove and fix the screws and the cover. The cover 181 is apt to be missed after the cover is removed from the dealing board main body and accidently lost.